McMansion
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"McMansion" is a pejorative term for a particular style of housing that, as its name suggests, is both large like a mansion and while superficially a good value, possessing standards of quality (within a developer) and ubiquitous like McDonald's fast food restaurants, lacks "nutritional" value (in the sense that a house nurtures its occupants). McMansion is used as a pejorative term because they are seen to be characterised by traditional features without an understanding of those styles' underlying logic and purpose, sometimes cheap construction quality, have generally negative impacts on nature and community, and tend to look the same despite their superficially unique features.
During the U.S. boom years of the 1980s and 1990s McMansions were a new concept intended to fill a gap between the modest suburban tract home and the upscale custom designed home often found in gate-guarded, lakeshore, or golf-course communities. Some large tracts of McMansions have now been developed around such amenities.
Alternative names for McMansions and similar houses include Beltway Baronial, Starter Castle, Persian Palace and Faux Chateau; again, these are pejorative terms.
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Characteristics
Developers of McMansions intend each house to look different. However, this individuality is sometimes seen as superficial, as the exteriors draw on a limited range of features (often taken from traditional styles of architecture) and the interiors share many similar features.
Size and materials
The foremost characteristic of a McMansion is the impression of size. As a consequence, these houses often appear too large for their lots. Developers are keen not to increase the size of lots because of the expense of land.
This style of house will usually have two stories; again, this is an economic consideration as it allows for taller living spaces in a portion of the building and the costs of roof and foundation are shared by two floors elsewhere in the building. At the lower end of the price range a McMansion will have a simple, monolithic rectangular footprint, while more expensive versions will have additional wings or projections.
McMansions are built of the same wood-framed studwall construction as lesser tract houses, sheathed on the exterior with exterior-grade plywood or (more typically) oriented strand board, which is then covered with power-applied stucco texture, shingling, or pre-assembled panels of clapboard siding. The interiors of the studwalls and ceilings are covered with drywall, usually textured to hide defects in panel alignment.
Exterior style and landscaping
An excessively voluminous, imposing roof tends to be a defining mark of the McMansion. McMansion communities have been likened to a "sea of roofs". The roof is comprised of shingled or tiled construction, extensively punctuated by dormers and cross-gables, pediments with oculus or "bull's-eye" windows, "Palladian" windows, in which a central arch-headed window is flanked by narrower rectangular windows (often termed a "Palladium window" in the American building trades, and a Venetian window in Europe). Rather than the more expensive true divided light type of windows, the appearance of individual panes is given in the form of grids within or applied onto the exterior of large sheets of glass. Often expensive or expensive-looking materials such as stone or brick will be used on the front and a portion of the sides of the house, while the back may be stucco or siding.
The relatively low price of McMansions as compared to traditional mansions rarely allows for the structure to be blended with its environment, so lots are typically bulldozed to bare dirt, removing all native plants and trees. The lot is reseeded with non-native grasses and new trees which are limited to landscaping stock such as ash, mulberry, and pear. Often the trees selected are only male, as it is desired to not have dropping fruit stain sidewalks, vehicles, or attract wildlife (this nationwide planting of male trees has greatly increased the airborne pollen count which aggravates allergies). The impact of McMansions is even more prominent on large rural lots, where they tend to be sited on bare ridges, visible from afar and clashing with the surrounding countryside.
Entrances
McMansions usually have a formal entrance that is rarely used. There is usually some kind of porch or portico to provide shelter from the weather, or there may even be a porte cochere, a kind of very large porch taken from European neoclassical architecture that was large enough to allow carriages to drive underneath. Doors for the formal entrance will often be double wide, or single oversized with cut glass side lights.
The formal entrance of the house is often echoed by large gatepiers at the driveway entrance, which are used even when there is no gate and no wall.
What would have been a century ago considered the servants' and tradesman's entrance — the one which leads into the kitchen and utility area of the house — is now the main means of entrance for the occupants. For houses with attached garages, the entrance (by the residents) to the house is ordinarily from the garage through the utility rooms into the kitchen. This use of the garage as entrance was developed in older tract housing developments, wherein the inhabitants would routinely drive into the attached garage and enter the house therefrom, making the "front" door more of an ornament than a useful feature. In snowy climates there will often be a mud room at the rear or side entrance, allowing the removal of rain gear, heavy outer clothing, and boots before entering the family room or kitchen.
Exterior lighting
Exterior lighting for McMansions is often dramatic, profuse and varied. The use of upward lights to wash walls and illuminate landscaping is seen by some as both wasteful of energy and contributing to a growing light pollution problem.
Interior arrangement
The interior of a McMansion is usually traditional in layout, with reception rooms and kitchen on the ground floor, and sleeping accommodation on the upper floor. There may be a single small bedroom somewhere on the lower floor for access by guests or should a member of the family become infirm and be unable to climb the stairs to the upstairs bedrooms. As most bedrooms in McMansions are upstairs, the laundry area will often be placed on the second floor. A full master bedroom suite (a combination of sleeping area, closets, and private bath) on the entrance level is becoming a highly sought after feature in multistory houses.
Large spaces
McMansions frequently include large rooms that are intended to be used as quiet rooms. This might be in the form of an atrium-style hall which extends upwards through the height of the house and which has a "grand staircase", or a "great room". This room is often tall and may have a "Cathedral ceiling" following the pitch of the roofline, or it may have a balcony that serves as part of the upstairs hallway. Large or numerous windows are sometimes used in the great room, which can result in buildings that are either expensive to cool or to heat if the house has been designed without consideration for its orientation relative to seasonal sun paths as is often the case in suburban developments. Often any two story side windows will give a nice view of the neighbors similar windows, as blocks of the "McPlantations" that hold McMansions are usually filled with pairs of roughly mirror imaged houses on comparatively small lots.
In most of these houses, there will be extra space in the upstairs hallway, whether as part of a balcony which looks downstairs or simply facing the front, with the many windows. Often this area is used as another family room for casual television watching or playing of video games by younger members of the family and their friends.
A formal dining room
Although it may be used only a few times a year, a formal dining room, separate from other spaces, is a characteristic of the McMansion.
A reception parlor
It is possible for the great room to be rather overwhelming for everyday use, and so many McMansions have a smaller reception room. This space may also be adapted by the owners as a library or home office.
A family room
Rather than use the great room or reception parlour as an everyday living room, a family room will be provided for family entertainment such as casual television watching or playing video games - the upper end of the McMansion range may have a separate home theatre. This room is typically adjacent to the kitchen, or it may be incorporated into an open-plan space that includes the kitchen and an everyday dining area; this kind of large, multi-use room is another way for the McMansion to include impressive spaces.
A large garage
McMansions may have have sweep drives and garages for at least two, but commonly more, automobiles. Golf course or lakeside developments will often have an additional mini-garage for a golf cart or small boat storage.
Other amenities
McMansions typically include a large number of up-to-date and high tech features. Bathrooms proliferate: most will be en suite bathrooms, and the master bedroom suite's may be a home spa. Lighting schemes are frequently complex, requiring large banks of switches — the most expensive will probably have computerised systems run through touch-sensitve LCD screens rather than banks of switches. Television, cable, and telephone points will usually be built into most rooms as standard. In the case of newer examples, the house will have Ethernet wiring throughout in order to support a home network. Kitchens will have high-tech features built in.
Restrictive covenants
The houses in tracts of McMansions are typically burdened by a great number of restrictive covenants, which are contractual restrictions upon the use of the property. This will even extend to such matters as the prohibition of the use of clotheslines in back yards, the colors that may be selected when a house is repainted, the prohibition of working on vehicles in driveways, the keeping of domestic animals or bees, and so on. Most residents consider this a positive aspect as it prevents the neighbors from doing things they may find irritating, while paying little attention to the rights that they sign away and the restrictions imposed upon themselves. In some cases, aspects of these covenants have been found to be against public policy, or illegal infringements upon civil rights. There have also been restrictions imposed against the installation of rooftop solar panels for water heating or electrical generation, usually to be invalidated by subsequent legislation. The restrictive covenants will typically be enforced by a local homeowners' association, to which dues and assessments must be paid. In many ways, these covenants are similar to the rules of condominiums. Thus, they are sometimes more accepted by homeowners who are recent residents of condominiums, which is typical for McMansion residents looking for a more user-friendly style of house that they can mold even with restrictions.
"Luxury move-up homes"
Developers don’t like the term McMansion because of its negative connotations. They say they are building large homes because it doesn’t pay to build small homes when land is so expensive. Developers say they build what sells — and that McMansion-bashing is done out of jealousy. Developers say they build what people want. "I guess the term is supposed to be an indictment of the fast-paced cookie cutter world we live in," said Stephen Shaw, a developer. "We call them luxury move-up homes,". [1] (http://www.dailyrecord.com/news/wherewelive/series3/) And in many ways, they are, because many of these couples and families started in either smaller homes or cramped condos.
Criticisms
Many aspects of the McMansion have been criticised: the quality of the architecture, the quality of the construction, the wastefulness of McMansion developments, and their destruction of nature. It is ironic that McMansions are criticized for these things: arguably, although a McMansion seeks to promote its owner's wealth, prestige and good taste, those qualities are denied by the reality of bad architecture, cheap construction, small lots and tract-style development.
Poor architecture
The chief criticism levelled at McMansions is that they are frequently examples of poorly considered and ostentatious architecture. The features from traditional styles of architecture that appear on the exterior are often symptomatic of a "decorated box" approach to the architecture, in which the features used without understanding: they are purely decorative and their use often disregards a harmonious sense of proportion. Inside, the desire for large impressive spaces means that much of the McMansion's volume is wasted in non-functional high ceiling (two story) rooms. These large rooms (and the McMansion in general) are more like theatrical sets than spaces for living.
The traditional styles of architecture — primarily neoclassical architecture or Georgian, or less commonly, half-timbered Tudor and Jacobean styles — are also criticised because they are not native to the US, and because features from these styles are mixed. These styles are popular because they are thought to evoke European heritage and prestige; however, their brash newness, ostentation and the severely limited understanding of architecture that they display contradict the qualities that the house are intended to convey.
False community
Modest front porches with baluster railings have recently come into vogue in more recent designs in an attempt to evoke an association with the type of house found in an older and established community. While the impression may be given that the occupants will sit on the porch and greet passing pedestrian members of the community, this seldom occurs as the means of entrance and egress for residents of the development is typically by motor vehicle with direct entrance to the residence from the attached or alley garage. In many cases it is simply not possible to walk to shopping as the development may have no such amenities, with a sidewalk-free road entrance onto a busy highway. This anti-pedestrian layout is a feature inherited from earlier tract housing.
Wastefulness of resources
In some jurisdictions, in order to combat perceived urban sprawl from nearby metropolitan areas, local counties have used the weapon of minimum plot size, having exactly the opposite effect in the larger region. The larger the minimum plot size, the less the population density, and the fewer county and state resources are needed for public facilities such as roads, schools, and water. The plot size is a matter of great local political debate between the forces of developers, county and local residents. Developers will typically seek a variance to allow houses to be put on smaller properties, often with the promise of using some land for parks or open space. When a variance is not granted, McMansion plot sizes end up being "too small to farm, too large to mow": a poor use of land resources which ultimately contributes to further sprawl.
Counties and states have countered this trend with farm preservation laws which ensure some farms remain undeveloped, however this creates artificial farm islands which removes and isolates the farmer from his community. Often the side effects of farming are objected to by the new neighbors - particularly dust and odors from fertilizer and animals. Some communities have employed a system of credits that are given to farmers and that developers must purchase to construct housing. Once the credits are all purchased, no more houses may be constructed. The township of Chesterfield, New Jersey has employed this system and has become the model for other towns.
Destruction of wildlife
McMansions are usually built on undeveloped land. Yet ironically the names used in McMansion developments tend to cite the very things that have been destroyed by the construction work. For instance "Oak Ridge" implies the native oaks have been bulldozed, "Turkey Run" suggests the turkeys have been displaced, "Shadow Brook" is probably a dark underground storm drain, and a "Nature Preserve" likely refers to an undeveloped plot without any wildlife management program. This practice has led to the description of McMansion communities as a place "where they cut down all the trees and name streets after them".
Role in infill development
In other jurisdictions, particularly in multi-city metropolitan areas, exactly the opposite effect may be seen - where roads are so choked as to make commuting a chore, previous hopscotch development may now be infilled. Where zoning would otherwise prohibit the use of small lots, a parcel may be subdivided as a Planned Unit Development (PUD), with less than the usual lot size and front, side, and back setbacks, and the economics of the project forcing the development of two story houses. Similar to the market economies of automobiles, larger often translates to more profitable for the developer. As such, the overbuilding leads to a dearth of affordable housing for citizens of modest economic means, who are then forced in some cases to commute well over a hundred km (62 miles) in a day, in traffic conditions that are barely sufferable.
Forced upscaling
In other jurisdictions there may be a minimum area household requirement, designed to keep out residents of lower income by forcing the houses to be large and thus expensive.
McMansions in other countries
The McMansion phenomenon has begun to spread beyond the United States into other western countries.
In Australia, such houses have started to appear since the 1990s, mainly near expensive private schools or public-transport routes which lead to private schools. Usually, smaller cottage-style houses have been demolished to make way for these houses. Unlike their US counterparts, they are not built as a "development cluster" which is managed by a homeowner's association. Rather they are built as a single dwelling owned by its owners. Styles are often used with names such as "neo-Georgian" or "neo-Federation" and which evoke the appearance of Georgian or Edwardian / Federation houses. In Melbourne, they are often known known as "Toorak wedding cakes" because of the three-layered front that they have.
See also
External links
- "Not every higher-end buyer wants McMansion" (http://www.dailyrecord.com/news/wherewelive/series3) by Abbott Koloff, Daily Record
- "The McMansion Next Door" (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3225775/) by Cathleen McGuigan, Newsweek